The subject matter herein relates generally to patient monitoring systems and methods, and more particularly, to patient monitoring systems and methods that monitor multiple parameters to facilitate identifying alarm conditions.
Patient monitoring systems are configured to receive physiological data from a patient, analyze the physiological data, and communicate information to a healthcare provider so that the healthcare provider may assess a condition of the patient. Monitoring systems may include one or more detection devices that detect the physiological data and an operator display that presents the information to the healthcare provider. The information includes recognizable physiological parameters that the healthcare provider may use to determine a health status or condition of the patient. Non-limiting examples of these parameters include heart rate, blood pressure, electrocardiographic (ECG) data, auditory evoked potentials, and electroencephalogram (EEG) data. ECG data, in particular, may be used to diagnose certain cardiac conditions, such as complex arrhythmias, myocardial ischemia, and prolonged QT intervals. EEG data may be used to assess a patient's depth of sedation (or depth of anesthesia). A set of patient parameters may also be used to determine a patient's health index, which may represent a physiological deterioration of the patient. Diagnosing the above conditions often includes simultaneously analyzing multiple parameters. This diagnosis is made more difficult because the values that may be considered problematic depend upon the patient.
Monitoring systems are often particularly configured for monitoring certain conditions. For example, monitoring systems may exist for detecting ECG data and analyzing the ST-segments from the ECG data. Changes in ST-segments may indicate myocardial ischemia in which blood flow to the patient's heart is reduced. Traditional ST-segment monitoring systems present a table to the healthcare provider. For example, the healthcare provider may be presented with a table having eleven values that can be positive or negative and are updated in real-time. The tables may compare only one heart beat versus another heart beat. In some cases, the healthcare provider must be specially trained for a particular monitoring system in order to be able to identify when a significant event occurred. Although these ST-segment monitoring systems provide useful information for assessing a patient's health, it is often difficult to interpret the information quickly. Because they can be difficult or frustrating to use, some healthcare providers decide not to use the systems.
Another, more recent, ST-segment monitoring system displays two multi-axis portraits or maps of the ST-segment data. In each portrait, six axes intersect one another at a center of the portrait and each axis intersects a perimeter of the portrait. The ends of the axes, which are positioned along the perimeter of the portrait, correspond to the placement of the electrodes used to obtain the ECG data from the patient. While monitoring a patient, colored sections are shown on the portrait that indicate areas of the heart that are indicating ischemia. Again, although this ST-segment monitoring system provides useful information for assessing a patient's status, the portraits are not intuitive and it is often difficult to interpret the information quickly and/or correctly. A substantial amount of education may be necessary so that the healthcare provider will feel comfortable using the system. Such portraits may also not provide a historical record that shows the user how the patient's health status has changed over a designated time period.